Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. received an order from MTA Metro-North Railroad (MNR), via Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc., its United States subsidiary, for the new M-8 AC/DC commuter railcar. Beginning in 2011, these electric railcars are being placed in regularly scheduled service on the New Haven Line between Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, New York, and Connecticut. They have been well received by the traveling public. MNR currently runs three types of electric railcars (a total of 342) on the New Haven Line, but plans to replace the entire fleet with the M-8 cars to improve operating efficiency.

Each M-8 stainless steel carbody is about 25 meters in length, and has highly reliable traction equipment, heating and air-conditioning equipment, door operators, and a public announcement system. The onboard monitoring system is capable of real-time monitoring of the vehicle conditions while the trains are running. M-8 trainsets are the first electric trains to be able to run to New York’s Pennsylvania Station via Amtrak and MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tracks, and can also run east of New Haven Station in Connecticut. To be able to operate on these different lines, the M-8 can draw power from three sources: 650V DC, 60 Hz 12.5kV AC, and 60 Hz 25kV AC. It is also equipped with dual mode current collects for the different third rails used on MNR and LIRR territories.